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One of the great talents of PBS documentarian Ken Burns is that he can put the viewer in the place of the viewed. His stark depictions and spot-on voiceovers put us in the moment with those whose lives are being chronicled. In the WWII series The War, there’s an instance of this where, after descriptions of the hardships of US infantry GI’s make it seem totally unbearable, a voiceover of a veteran explains that it was seeing his comrades endure life in cold, muddy foxholes while being shelled by the enemy incessantly day after day that made it endurable.
While practicing the contemplative prayer techniques suggested in the ancient anonymous classic The Cloud of Unknowing a while ago, I reached a level where it appeared to me that I was finally all alone with God. I had been able to let all my thoughts go, resisting their allure, no matter how holy or instructive they seemed. However, there was the sense of a negative impulse coming from beyond the “cloud,” behind which was the presence of the Divine One.
“No,” is what I heard, softly yet authoritatively spoken.
And then I felt the presence of “others.” In my meditative state I became aware of others also silently, prayerfully communing with God in the meditative “room” I had found myself in.
And then it came — a moment of clarity. I was thinking that finally it was just me and God. But there is no “just me and God.” God is aware of all, intimately involved with all, all the time. Even in the inner circles it’s never a “just me and God.” It is “God and us.”
Lately I have been putting this into practice when I’m feeling desperately alone with my troubles. I am letting myself realize at these moments something that I do know when I’m confident of God’s care and concern. Whatever my problems are, there are others experiencing the same kinds of things.
So, instead of praying “God help me,” I am asking God to help us. And that alone helps.
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(right click on the link in the above pic and open another window to play music while reading lyrics. There is one more verse in the lyrics than in the music.)
Keep Running With Me (sing to the tune of the Theme from “Chariots of Fire”)
By Charles F. Tekula, Jr.
One Day
One Day
When no one expects it the time will arrive
When we will no longer have to run to survive.
When nobody’s looking a cloud will descend
To bring our Lord Jesus to this world again.
I wake and I see the morning sun come over the trees,
I know that as this day’s race is run you’ll be there with me.
But that dawn will bring a better day when our struggle will cease,
And there will not be a setting sun on that day of peace.
The road set before me is narrow and long,
But I have this assurance — when I’m weak you are strong.
For whenever I stumble or my legs start to tire,
Your angels uplift me on chariots of fire.
The hardness in life against me flies like ice in the wind,
It’s always there burning in my eyes and piercing my skin.
But your Spirit has helped me to withstand the enemy’s spears,
And one day your strong but gentle hand will dry all my tears.
The heavens will open and you will appear,
You’ll end all the sorrow and suffering here.
So when I get disheartened I look to the sky,
For as trouble increases redemption draws nigh.
And then when I see the evening sun sink into the deep,
I pray that your Truth will fill my dreams as I lay asleep.
Your Word is my compass — it’s faithful and true;
The Promise my comfort and my hope as I wait for you.
With you there beside me I’ll finish this race,
And when this life is over we’ll meet face to face.
But for now I’ll keep running and one day I’ll see
That wherever I ran Lord, you were running with me.
Keep running with me, Lord,
Keep running with me.
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Much of the preaching you hear in Christian circles focuses on sin — what it is and what one must do in order to obtain forgiveness and redemption.
But the Christian authority is Jesus of Nazareth Himself, and any “authority” with which these preachers speak has to come from Him. He once walked the earth and did and said many things which have been reported to us from those days by people who knew Him and lived with Him. I don’t see where He focused on sin at all, or made up any kind of loyalty oath or special set of prayers for us to have our sins washed away forever.
The woman taken in adultery was dragged before Him, most probably kicking and screaming. She did not want to be there, especially since the men who were accusing her wanted to have her Biblically stoned to death for her breach of the Commandments of Moses, seeking to reinforce their interpretation of the Scriptures. But Jesus just wrote something with His finger in the dirt and the accusatory crowd left in guilt one by one. And without the sinful woman asking or praying or showing one bit of remorse, she went home justified.
In another place, a man bedridden with paralysis was lowered through the roof by ropes so he could get close to Jesus and perhaps be healed. But, before this man uttered a sound, Jesus forgave his sins. And then showing the stunned crowd that he had the Divine authority to forgive sins, He did what He Himself described as the much more difficult thing of healing the man.
It looks like the message is “Get close to God by any necessary means.” It is in His very nature to forgive. It is we who have the problem in this area ….
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I can’t do Godless mornings anymore. I know because I tried. I found myself at 53 years old, sweeping the cobwebs out of my head and wondering where I stood with God. For a moment I was reliving a Godless morning in Levittown, a kid who knew no God surrounded by families who centered their lives around their God and their churches and synogogues. I was making the movements of that boy, getting my own breakfast with nobody else up in the house, planning on my moves to bring my toasted english muffin and my glass of milk to the easy chair in front of the television set.
But I said, “Let me try this in the present.”
I quickly realized that it was now impossible. I could doubt my place with God. I could doubt His love for me. But there is no way that there could be another Godless morning, day, evening or night, not after the life I have lived.
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Jesus described the Kingdom of God as a little leaven, or yeast, that a woman “hid” in a lump of dough, leavening the whole loaf. Conventional Christian wisdom has it that this all important “leaven” is the Word of God which Jesus spoke into the world. But there are problems with this explanation of the symbolism. It shows Jesus and, by extension, the apostles, as a woman hiding the Word of Jesus, while Jesus Himself said that His teachings should not be “hidden under a bushel” but “shouted from the house tops.” Also, leaven is not in the Hebrew tradition something spiritually good; it, in fact, signifies apostasy among God’s people.
There is a key Old Testament subject that, when placed in this New Testament allegory, not only fits the bill, but itself provides a key that unlocks all of Scripture and ties together all the loose ends between the Old and New Testaments. The Lost Tribes of Israel are this “Holy Grail”, lost to man but not lost to God. These most important people of the actual Kingdom of Israel, upon whose shoulders rested all the Abrahamic Promises of earthly and heavenly greatness specifically spoken upon the Tribes of Joseph (except the leadership role, given to the Tribe of Judah and fulfilled in Jesus the Davidic Jew) — were overrun by the Assyrians in the 8th Century BCE, their most important citizens deported to the far northern regions of Mesopotamia. This is an historical fact and can be found in any encyclopedia. They have never been heard from as Israelites again. But both Jacob and Moses proclaimed just before their deaths that they would become nations “in the last days” and that the Josephites would be the greatest nation that has ever existed, growing beyond the geophysical boundaries of the Middle East, driving their enemies to the ends of the earth and being greatly blessed with every sort of resource, even the precious things of the sun and moon.
The Hebrew prophets bemoaned the destruction and deportation of the Northern Kingdom of Israel as befalling them because they had become idolatrous and unfaithful. In other words, God had cast them off because they had become “leaven” in his sight. The Assyrians were Goddess worshipers, and the Israelites had fallen into the scurrilous and pornographic practices involved in the worship of the Goddess Ishtar, aka Ashtoreth.
While it is often stated in historical references that the Lost Tribes were assimilated into the Assyrian melting pot becoming unidentifiable as Israelites (hence “lost”), the fact is that in the centuries just following this relocation the peoples of the region underwent major migrations to the four winds. Many pilgrimages have been undertaken to all points of the globe to tribes and towns where the people mysteriously exhibit Hebrew characteristics in their culture and religious practices, these people being heralded as having descended directly from one of the “Ten Lost Tribes.”
My book “The Hidden Kingdom” does not claim to have found any new “Lost Tribes” – what I do is point out the significance of their being “lost” in the first place. They were the “leaven” (God’s people in apostasy) that was hidden by the “woman” (the Assyrian Goddess worshipers) in the “lump of dough” (the world) “leavening the whole loaf,” turning the whole world into the Kingdom of God in apostasy. I show how the Lost Tribes are also the “pearl of great price” that a man (God) found hidden in a field, becoming so happy that he “hid it again” (hence they are still “lost”), sold all he had (God’s Son given over to be killed) and bought the whole field (saving the rest of the world). They were the Prodigal Son, who returned to the Father asking only to be treated as one of His servants, and for whom He killed the “fatted calf”. They later became the Good Samaritan (the original residents of Samaria were the “cream of the crop” Tribe of Ephraim) that saved the Jews who were ambushed by the Nazi criminals ” . . . on the road to Jericho.” Jesus, in fact, said He had come seeking the “lost sheep of the House of Israel.” The loss of this key piece of the Abrahamic genealogical puzzle was the catalytic event that brought the Son of God to the world. He came to save the worldly plan for the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and in so doing, also saved “whosoever believed”.
We are still enjoying the “feast of the fatted calf,” but for how long . . .? Read about it in The Hidden Kingdom: The United States in Biblical Prophecy – the meaning of September11.
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As to the “new data” on the percentages of fishing mortality the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is now embracing, and the controversy this is engendering, I’d like to make a few personal observations. My credentials are these – I have been a commercial fisherman all of my adult life, and I am approaching my 55th birthday. I have been an elected public sector union official, and spent a year studying law at Touro College. I have also served on the executive boards of the now defunct Long Island Fisherman’s Association and LICFA, its successor commercial fishermen’s trade organization.
It’s long been known by all principals that the recreational sector has been landing as much and in some cases much more of certain targeted species of marine fish than their commercial counterparts. What is being lost in the mix is that the real self-servers are those who are portraying themselves to be the servants of the public good. The agencies, the research groups competing for the lucrative grant money and the so-called “not-for-profit” environmental groups are all making mega-hay by manufacturing crisis after crisis under a law that was originally enacted to protect and enhance the fishing business in America. Those who want some insight into what is really going on here should read Susan Playfair’s wonderfully mosaic expose’ on the subject, Vanishing Species: Saving the Fish and Sacrificing the Fishermen. Fishermen are actually dying every year due to the ridiculously harsh management measures that are being forced upon us.
The above mentioned groups comprise a system that has really no clue as to the real size of marine species biomass or potential and actual reproductive rates in virtually all cases, but they force us all to treat their meaningless numbers as being written in stone Gospel Truth – so much so that at times the only people who by law cannot be in possession of a sea bass (and various and sundry species of locally available finfish) are those who are licensed to catch and sell them. Often this situation comes at times when the particular species in question is literally jumping into the boats of recreational interests in previously unprecedented numbers. Commercial boats often remain tied to the dock at these times because in order to land the meager numbers of fish they are allowed to catch and sell they must wade through tons of the fish we are told there are not enough of for us to even sell a few pounds, while a skiff with a half-dozen sporties on board will often legally take home a couple of cartons of the same commercially banned fish. I once asked a fisheries official if I could order a sea bass in a restaurant during these “emergency closures”, since the law prohibits possession by a licensed foodfisherman of even one sea bass at these times. I didn’t get a straight answer.
The really big losers in this conundrum is the commercial fishermen and, by extension those they work for, the local consumer. I don’t mean this in only a financial way. We who harvest locally available seafood products for the by-in-large colloquial market have answered the call of the people of our region, which “demand” is reflected in the dockside price for the day’s catch. The law is clear that the governmental agencies have “in-trust” possession of the marine resources along our coastlines, managing these most often free swimming hordes in the interest of the rightful owners, i.e., the at-large public. However, beginning right after World War II and much more rapidly in the last two decades the property rights of those who have historically contracted with the public to provide them with their rightfully owned wild marine foodstuffs have been almost totally eradicated. It now appears, after the enactment of foodfish license statutes (for which a potential licensee often must document his historic property right to obtain such license), that the only people who have no statutory or Constitutional property right to possess fish, according to the modern judge-made-law in coastal regions, are those who are the only people who can legally catch them for commercial purposes. Time and again the courts are ruling that fishermen cannot recover for the loss of the wrongful taking of their ability to ply their trade. It’s as if a person signed a contract to work for a company for ten years and then got fired wrongfully after five, but was tossed out of court because she didn’t own the building she worked in or any of its contents.
The Constitutional property right that commercial fishermen have is a special right to utilize the marine resource for commercial purposes. The courts in the coastal regions are somehow confusing this kind of property right with the actual possession of the fish, which doesn’t occur until the fish are “skillfully caught and landed.” There is a federal court of appeals that has recently afforded commercial fishing interests this other special property right. There the property right to fish for commercial fishermen was likened to work rights of tenured college professors. Unfortunately for us marine interests, this happens to be the 7th Circuit in Indiana ….
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So much is made of Copernicus and Galileo wresting science away from religious authorities who had declared it a heresy to claim that the earth was not the center of the universe. Using the telescope he invented and his and his predecessor’s mathematical calculations, Galileo was able to show that the earth was just one of several orbiting satellites of the sun.
We have come to a place now where it is accepted scientific cosmology that the universe is constantly expanding and has no center and no edge. Therefore, saying that the earth is not the center of the universe is really saying nothing.
Christendom need only alter it’s terms slightly to say something irrefutable and profound:
Life is the Center of God’s Universe.
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Below is a page scanned from my book which was published in 2002. However, the original manuscript was copyrighted in 1999, over two years before the World Trade Center disaster. A copy of it, including this text, has been on file in the Library of Congress since then.
See also A Sign in the Heavens the week before 9/11
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